Blog

Looking through my old books for my Fairy Tales post last month was an enjoyable, but somewhat eerie experience. I feel as though those books imprinted themselves on my brain on some deeply primordial level. The thoughts and ponderings I had in my head as a child are still there, just waiting for the right […]

Since I last posted here, I have sent off the art for BOOM BOOM, a 32-word picture book (each word is repeated once so it’s really 16 words, twice) by Sarvinder Naberhaus. It was a mad rush towards the end (it always is) and after I shipped it out, I felt joy, relief, and just […]

Clark One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish – Theodore Geisel As I have been working on the illustrations for BOOM BOOM, I have been thinking about humor in children’s book illustrations – what amused me when I was a child and what I find funny now. I’m sure there is a common thread […]

Things are heating up in my cluttered, but lovely little studio. I am working on the finished illustrations for BOOM BOOM, and I need to replenish my stock of art supplies. First stop, Daiso, the Japanese dollar-store franchise and my idea of a fun time. This is what I call a good haul: a sink […]

Every so often I am contacted by someone, a student usually, who is working on a project and wants my input or advice. A few months ago, I got another such request. The subject line was “small favor…” Margaret, I was wondering if you might be able to help me. I’m an illustration major at […]

Yesterday I sent off a revised, “tight” dummy to my editor at Beach Lane Books for Boom Boom. Today is a day of reprieve – I can take a bit of a break before I hear back from her, but it’s too soon for me to start worrying because I haven’t heard from her yet. […]

I am not a person who is comfortable (read, confident) as a writer. I always feel like I am sitting in someone else’s chair. It takes tremendous will and discipline for me to settle into the task, especially when there are so many other things I would rather do (like, say, the laundry). I find […]

Last night I participated in the South Sound Reading Foundation‘s Books By the Bay Gala fundraising event, (made possible with help from Rhonda Munzinger at Barnes & Noble Books), with Julie Paschkis, Robin Cruise, Judy Bentley, Eric Brooks, Ken Mochizuki, and Jim Lynch. The South Sound Reading Foundation’s principle: To ensure that every child is […]

“Birds and Woman’s Face”-Kenojuak I visited my parents recently, and while I was there I spent some time looking through the books on their shelves. Most of them are the same books I grew up looking at when I was a kid, sitting in the living room of our house in Southern California. It was […]

We have sun in Seattle today. Not a cloud in the sky. This is the kind of day that makes Seattleites smile at each other in a goofy, I-love-you-man sort of way. So I pick this day to write about clouds, and not looking at things very carefully. Last year when I was illustrating Dinosaur […]